A very old ryokan at Shima. Many people take photos here, few stay.
Our next grand adventure took us to Shima Onsen in Gunma. Of all the onsen I’ve been to, this is surely not the nicest or biggest or oldest, but it’s my favorite.
My grand plan was to have us spend our Christmas Eve there (which is what we did). We left Tomioka early. Really early. So early, the sky was still hot pink and there was a dusting of snow. It was extremely cold.
During our time together, Colin and I must have ridden hundreds of hours worth of buses and trains. This trip was no exception, with two train for a total of almost two hours, and then a bus, tacking on another 40 minutes or so. The northwest region of Gunma, however, is beautiful, so it was a wonderful ride up there.
Naturally, there was quite a bit of snow in the northern reaches of Shima, so we had fun hiking around. The further north we went, the deeper it got, until eventually we were out of town among small cottages and gardens. The animal tracks gave us our first hint of monkeys in our future. That, and all the electric fencing around the veggie gardens.
Monkey tracks!
Onward and upward, dear readers, onward and upward. Snow everywhere, but we were impervious to the cold and wind, covered as we were in woolly layers of fluff. Aside from all the monkey evidence, there were signs warning us of bears, too. There were even bells along the trail (smaller versions of the artsy one you sometimes see made out of old scuba tanks) for hikers to ring if they came across any.
Hiking in the snow
The bear on this sign looked really scary. Big, sharp teeth and angry eyes.
We headed back down the mountain and crossed over the river. The river, by the way, was of particular interest. The water was blue, like a tropical ocean or something. It was really weird. And the rocks had turned white from the chemicals in the water (naturally occurring). The hike up the other side of the river was about to yield us quite an exciting discovery…
 From the bamboo forest, to the hot spring water... |
 An umbrella in a tree that really befuddled us. It was at least 50 feet up and 50 feet away from the road. How did it get there? |
The first monkey Colin spotted.
There we were, just walking down the road, when Colin gets all excited and is like, “Give me the camera!” Sure enough, monkey’s a plenty. There were really furry and about medium dog sized. At first we just saw a few, but then we realized they were all up the hill, and skittering around in the surrounding brush. They weren’t particularly afraid of us, but none got closer than at least 6 or 7 feet, most stayed much farther away. There were dozens of them of different ages and sizes. Quite amazing, really.
Here is one of the many videos we took. An interesting note: When Colin comments, “I’ve been mauled by a monkey, thanks,” he’s referring to the time he got mauled by a particularly nasty monkey named, “Cujo” when he was working at a laboratory in Washington.
2 - 3 feet long!
Further up the road we found snow, icicles, and more freezing wind and snow. We decided to head down to our ryokan for check-in and a soak.
Shima from the road. The town is long and narrow, following the magical river
Our hotel was fabulous, with yukata robes, tea and snacks, tatami and a kotatsu (a low Japanese table with heater under it that keeps your legs warm.) We suited up for our trip to the private(!) hot tub (there were 5 different private ones and four segregated group ones) and soaked. There was no fourth wall, so we could look out on the river. Sitting in an onsen-fed ofuro (hot spring tub) in freezing weather is a cozy experience. The outside air is cold, and the bath is super-heated. So lovely.
Our room at the ryokan, in all our finery.
Afterwards, it was off to dinner, which was also incredible. I think we had maybe 20 different dishes including sukiyaki, tempura, sashimi, pickles, rice, salad, savory egg and ginkgo nut pudding, and Christmas cake. The food kept on coming forever, until we were stuffed. When we returned to our room, our futon were laid out for us with buckwheat pillows – the one thing I didn’t care for…
We visited the onsen again before bed, and experienced some misadventures involving the elevator and wrong floors, getting out at the wrong floor and getting back on, only to realize it was the right floor, and some confused Japanese people. A good time was had by all.
